Nato Troops Fire Warning Shots As Serbs Block Muslim Refugees

April 22, 1996|By From Tribune News Services.

DOBOJ, Bosnia-Herzegovina — NATO troops in the U.S. sector fired warning shots Sunday to stop Bosnian Serbs from attacking Muslims who were trying to visit homes from which they had been expelled during the war.

NATO military officers and refugee workers said the confrontation is likely to be one of many as Bosnian refugees--Serbs, Muslims and Croats alike--try to return home.

An estimated 2.4 million Bosnians were forced from their homes by the war. The peace agreement reached last year in Dayton guarantees their right to return home. But virtually none have.

In this north-central town, NATO troops used armored personnel carriers and six tanks Sunday in a vain effort to block as many as 1,000 Serbs who were moving on foot to prevent hundreds of Muslims from crossing a bridge over the Usora River into the town. The damaged bridge provides access only by foot.

The town, now populated almost entirely by Serbs, is in Bosnian Serb territory under the peace agreement.

The Serbs forced their way past NATO troops, who fired the warning shots hoping to keep them back, according to NATO officers. Then the Serbs began throwing rocks at the NATO forces, the United Nations police and the Muslims. Under the Dayton agreement, a group of UN police monitor local police activities.

More warning shots were fired and some of the Serbs began to disperse, the officers said. But it wasn't until two U.S. helicopters began to hover close to the ground over the crowd, causing a blast of air and dust with their rotor blades, that the Serbs retreated, as did the Muslims.

One of the helicopters was carrying Brig. Gen. Stanley Cherrie, an American who is an assistant commander of the American-led NATO division responsible for the northeast area of Bosnia.

"It was an extremely touchy couple of hours," said Maj. Terje Myklevoll, a peacekeeper from Norway, taking note of the hundreds of aggressive but apparently unarmed civilians.

NATO officers and UN refugee officials describe the issue of returning to ethnically altered areas as explosive. They say wider violence seems certain as more groups of people attempt to go home.

In the last two days, there have been two other outbreaks of violence when refugees tried to visit their homes. On Friday, Czech soldiers fired warning shots to keep back a crowd of Serbs moving on Muslims who were trying to reach the town of Bosanski Novi.

On Sunday, two busloads of Croats were attacked by Serbs throwing rocks near Modrica, according to NATO officials. No injuries were reported in either incident.

Three busloads of Bosnian Serbs were able to visit their town, Drvar, in western Bosnia. A NATO spokesman said UN police and refugee officials, as well as British peacekeepers, were able to persuade Bosnian Croat authorities in the town to allow the Serbs to enter without being harassed.